Matthew Howett, founder of research firm Assembly, thinks the reason is a combination of apathy and contentment with slower speeds.

“I think fundamentally most households are generally satisfied with the speeds they are getting, and find their needs are met although, of course, this changes when you introduce larger families, multiple streams of HDTV, and online gaming.

“All of these more bandwidth-intense services will push up a household’s requirements. The other thing to consider is the complexity faced when choosing a broadband package.

“While there are many good tools to help consumers shop around for the best deal, different contract durations, introductory tariffs, and added extras make changing package or supplier a daunting prospect for some.”